A DRAGONS' Den entrepreneur has revealed how Steven Bartlett made his biggest mistake by letting him go.
Steven, 31, was the youngest Dragon to ever sign up for the BBC One series when he joined in 2022.
During the last two series, Steven has invested in a number of companies, but he missed out on an incredible opportunity by rejecting one particular pitch.
Matt Kennedy and his former business partner hid in wheelie bins for 30 minutes before popping out and surprising the Dragons with their pitch, in an episode that was repeated last night.
Matt pitched his business Fussy, a design-led refillable natural deodorant.
While Steven leaped to Fussy’s defence in the Dragons' Den after a fiery exchange with Touker Suleyman, and called the pitch "flawless", he failed to put his money where his mouth was when challenged by Peter Jones.
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Thankfully for Matt and his former business partner, Peter and fellow Dragon Deborah Meaden did invest in Fussy, it's gone on to sell over 1,000,000 deodorants.
This means the brand has saved over 350,000 kg of plastic and launched nationwide into the UK’s biggest retailer Tesco – in what is also the largest retail roll out of any refillable brand in the UK to date.
All of this makes Fussy a business valued at over £12m, and if Steven had invested, his shares would have been worth an incredible £600,000.
Speaking about the experience, Matt told The Sun Online: "It was all very surreal. The day before my wife had given birth in an East London hospital.
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"The next morning I was hiding in a giant bin in a Manchester TV studio.
"We pitched for about 2 hours and were chuffed to get our two first choices in Deborah and Peter who have been very supportive throughout.
"We are big Steven fans so had a few attempts at trying to get him to change his mind and invest as well but alas it wasn’t to be.
"Steven calling Fussy ‘the apple of the bathroom’ is more than enough for us though. And thankfully we’ve two great Dragons in Deborah and Peter who have been very supportive throughout."
He continued: "Overall an amazing experience…and you have to give credit to the show for not just being for TV but genuinely support entrepreneurs…although I still can’t get over the lift not being real."
When Fussy launched in 2021 as a direct-to-consumer brand their design-led refillable natural deodorant took the personal care category by storm.
Scaling from a humble Kickstarter project round the kitchen table to where they are today. Sorry Steven!
Dragons' Den is available on BBC iPlayer.
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